Many vehicles are known to have partitions placed in them, for a variety of reasons. For instance, it is common for partitions to be placed behind the driver's seat in a van or mini-van, or other unitary body vehicle which is used particularly for delivery of parcels or for transporting tools and service parts, and the like. Thus, partitions in commercial vehicles are well known.
However, most partitions in commercial vehicles are of the type that are made of expanded metal or punched metal sheets. Such partitions are heavy, adding increased weight to the vehicle, they are difficult to install, and they provide obstructions if not totally obscure the rearward view of the driver of the vehicle. Moreover, such partitions tend, in many cases, not to serve the particular purpose for which they were originally installed, and that is to provide a safety barrier in the event of a panic stop or collision of the vehicle, where cargo--or other passengers--behind the partition are not fully secured and may be urged forwardly. Sometimes, as with a tool box, or certain types of cargo, such uncontrolled forward movement of such objects in an accident situation may cause more damage to the vehicle and the occupants of the vehicle than the accident itself.
Moreover, it has been noted that especially when vehicle partitions are placed in commercial vans, and the partitions are formed of expanded metal, the driver of the vehicle--if not the policy of the owner of the vehicle--may not permit loading of packages, tools, spare parts, and the like, to the extent that the full interior cargo compartment of the vehicle is utilized.
Other partitions have been known, such as safety partitions in police and taxi vehicles, where the front and rear passenger seats are segregated one from the other. Usually, those kinds of structure mount over the rear of the front seat of the vehicle, and are often mounted to the seat structure; thereby restricting the fore and aft movement of the front seat to accommodate drivers of different sizes, without particularly enhancing the safety of the driver except from that of a person in the rear seat of the vehicle attempting to climb into the front seat of the vehicle over the back of the front seat.
Some structures have been known that are particularly provided for separating the space in the front of a vehicle such as an automobile or van, for purposes of improving heating or cooling efficiency of the vehicle, but without any particular attention or attempt to provide safety for the persons in front of the barrier. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,632,154, issued to Woodrich on Jan. 4, 1972, provides a partition which is generally flexible and transparent, extending from floor to ceiling behind the operator's feet, and secured in position by such means as a VELCRO (trade mark) strip. Obviously, such partition has no physical integrity as to its ability to withstand impact of any object having any significant mass as the object moves forward in the vehicle in an accident situation.
Another such structure is shown in Hunter, U.S. Pat. No. 4,095,837 issued June 20, 1978. That patent shows a transparent flexible curtain which has two overlapping halves that are slidably fixed to a track mounted in the vehicle, where the curtain is made of semi-flexible material such as polyethylene and touches the back rest of the vehicle seat.
Two United States patents issued on Mar. 18, 1958 to Graham, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,826,788 and 2,827,305, each teach curved barriers having very complicated structures. Their principal purpose is to absorb impact in a variety or situations, including when in an automobile to reduce the likelihood of rebound of an object backwards from the partition.
Another safety shield or partition, particularly to preclude whiplash, is provided by Caiati et al in U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,972, issued Feb. 22, 1972, where a yieldable and flexible transparent material is mounted over passenger seats in automobiles. On the other hand, Setina in U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,875, issued Apr. 5, 1977, provides a curved partition having a curved vertical sliding partition window, which is particularly intended for use in police and taxi vehicles, and which is installed so as not to intrude into the rear passenger compartment and thereby so as to reduce leg room, by being mounted to a roll bar.
In contradistinction to all of the above, the present invention provides a partition which can be used in vans, mini-vans, and station wagons, which can be mounted and demounted quickly and easily, and which provides substantially unbreakable and shatterproof protection against impact of a forwardly moving object. Moreover, because of the configuration of the partition according to the present invention, not only does the driver of the vehicle have a clear and unobstructed view rearwards, he is also assured of relief from glare in the event of strong headlights from an oncoming vehicle.
Additionally, the partition according to the present invention provides heating and cooling efficiency, particularly in vans and other commercial vehicles where only a small portion of the vehicle must be heated or cooled for the comfort of the driver and any passenger that he may have, without the necessity of heating or cooling the entire interior of the vehicle. Energy savings are thereby achieved.
Moreover, because the cargo compartment of the vehicle can be more completely loaded, as discussed hereafter, additional energy savings may be realized due to more efficient vehicle use.
One of the particular advantages of the present partition is that it not only may be mounted and demounted from the vehicle very quickly and easily, its position within the vehicle may be changed; and in most cases that action involves only the fastening or unfastening of four hand-driveable fastening means such as carriage bolts having wings or other thumb screw operating means affixed thereto.
The mounting and demounting of the partition structure according to the present invention is particularly achieved by providing bracket means secured to the bottom of the partition panel with fastener means extending downwardly through the bracket means into co-operating means in the floor of the vehicle, and by other fastener means extending upwardly through bracket means at the top of the partition panel into co-operating means in the roof of the vehicle.
More particularly, the co-operating means in the floor of the vehicle comprises at least one pair of sideways spaced plates that are mounted in the floor; most often, two or three pairs of plates are provided especially in the case of a mini-van or other vehicle where two passenger seats accommodating four or six passenger may sometimes be used, and in other cases where only the front passenger seat is used, and when in each instance cargo such as tools and the like may be carried in the rear of the vehicle.
The top edge of the panel is secured in place most efficiently, and its positioning may be varied slightly to accommodate certain circumstances such as movement from one vehicle to another where the vehicles have been made by different manufacturers, by providing a pair of spaced tracks secured in the roof of the vehicle, and having a plurality of openings spaced lengthwise along each track to receive the fasteners.
It has been determined that, for the most part, three standard sizes of partitions can be provided to fit into most station wagons, most mini-vans and most full size vans, regardless of whom they were manufactured by. That is to say, a fleet owner having a number of, say, vans may move the partitions of the present invention within the vans from one or another more forward or more rearward location--or he may install more than one partition in the vehicle--or he may move partitions from one vehicle to another such as when the vehicles are taken out of service, without having to pay particular regard to whether or not the second vehicle into which a partition is being installed was manufactured by the same company as manufactured the vehicle from which the partition was taken. Of course, the fleet owner would permanently install plates in the floors of all of his vehicles, and tracks in the roofs of all of his vehicles, as their installation must be secure and their cost is low compared with the cost of the partition panel itself.
As to the panel, especially in such vehicles as station wagons and mini-vans, where very often the vehicle is used for passenger purposes, the entire panel may be manufactured of a preferred material such as sheet polycarbonate--particularly, for example that which is sold in association with the trade mark LEXAN. On the other hand, where partitions are installed in full size vans which are particularly used for commercial purposes only, such as transporting parcels or for transporting tools and service parts--for such fleet operators as government, utility companies and computer and photocopier manufacturers--and especially where such vehicles are full sized vans, it may be advantageous from a cost point of view to provide a partition panel in keeping with the present invention where the lower portion of the panel is manufactured from steel or other lower cost high strength material.
The impact strength of partition panels according to the present invention comes from two different factors in particular: the first comes from the fact that at least the upper portion--if not the entire panel--is manufactured from polycarbonate, having high impact (and even bulletproof) strength; and the second comes from the generally bowed or arched configuration of the partition panel.